After The War
by Demons of Disbelief
Summary: The war is over and the Golden Trio must continue on.


When Harry and Ron move in with Hermione after the war (she is the only of the three who had a job offer immediately after the end of the war) Molly is uncertain of what to think. She doesn't like her youngest son living with his girlfriend, but she's sure they won't be doing anything overly inappropriate with Harry there.

"I say Ron buys the bed," Ron starts and glances up at Hermione.

"What! Why me?"

"Because I stocked all the food in the flat and Hermione pays for the flat?" Harry asked, handing Ron the price tag.

"Oh Merlin! Fine, but I'm not getting it in the building," Ron agreed after a moment.

"Ron! Oh - fine, I'll pay for delivery," Hermione agreed.

After almost a year of living together, the trio bring a girl to the weekly Sunday dinner at the Burrow. Molly smiles and sits the girl next to Harry. Susan smiles and listens to Arthur talk about how Amelia was always kind to him, even during the war. Molly tells her about Sarah Longbottom and Anthony Bones, as if she had never heard about how brave her mother was to fight in the war or how her father had died. Susan smiles, and nods, and eyes Harry until he turns the conversation in another direction.

"I think I should move out of the room, guys," Hermione opens one eye and looks down at Ron from Harry's chest.

"Is this about Susan?" Harry asks, shifting so he can keep his grip on Hermione and cuddle closer to Ron at the same time. "We always agreed that this was only temporary, but don't you think its a little early?"

"Yeah, but we talked about being exclusive yesterday, and I think I want that. I don't want her to go home with Ted from the flower shop or find Kenny from work in her house one day. At least until we decide where this is going, I think I should sleep on the couch."

Hermione tilted Ron's face up to meet her eyes, "Ron, we support your choice. We love you and always will, the physical aspect has always been secondary. So you can't sleep on the couch. We'll turn my office into a second bedroom," Harry and Ron looked very slowly at each other.

"You said you had to have a place to work?" Harry phrases it as a question, mostly because he remembers the screaming match over if they should make the second room an office for Hermione or a game room for the boys. Hermione had rather quickly won.

"I do. I'll move my desk into the corner of this room, if its ok? I'll buy you a double bed so Harry can sleep in there when I need to work late."

Ron decided that the new step in his relationship would start when he told Susan his decision and promptly kissed Hermione.

Three months after Ron made a decision to date Susan, Remus Lupin starts coming to dinner with Harry. The first time, after dinner is finished Arthur takes Remus into the shed and they have a quiet discussion under the guise of Remus taking a look at Arthur's collection of Muggle things. After the kids leave, he tells Molly that Harry learned that Remus was one week from living on the street and had forced the man to move into their flat.

"I don't know, I like the one with the balcony."

"You would, I like the one that won't kill us if we fall out the window. Has a bigger lawn too," Ron pointed out, shifting Remus' new pillows to the side of the couch so he could sit down.

"Hermione likes the balcony too," Harry replies, taking the basket Remus held nervously and placing it on the little table pulled away from the couch now that it was being used as a bed.

"I'm not getting into this, I told you which ones I can live with. I picked this place you two figure this out," Hermione dropped several blankets next to Ron and collected several books off the table. When she moved to replace them on the shelf Remus scuttled away from it - and over the side of the couch. Ron moved over to give him room to sit.

"You don't have to move for me, you know."

All three occupants of the house looked at him suspiciously.

"Remus, you are aware that we don't let our friends just live on the street, yeah?" Ron asked.

"And if you don't have a place to live, you'll lose your weeks with Teddy!" Harry snapped, perhaps a touch too harshly.

"We've been considering a move for a while, Remus. This is just an excuse to do it," Hermione agreed, collecting the blanket and throwing it at him. "If you're going to live with us, you have to do your own laundry."

Molly had knitted them all sweaters (George's eyes filled with tears when Remus and Ron accidentally swapped sweaters. He blamed it on too-harsh hair dye and vanished into the bathroom. Charlie went after him) and they sat together in the Burrow, until Harry and Hermione had to leave to see her parents. Molly insisted her son spend the night, and put Susan in with Ginny and Bill in with Charlie so Remus could have a room to himself.

"Hermione?"

"Yeah, Harry?"

"I've got a girl I want to bring to dinner tomorrow night," she glanced over at him from the legal papers she was reviewing for her case.

"So…bring to dinner like Seamus-is-coming-I-need-the-bed-tonight or like I-think-Terry-might-be-the-one?" Harry hesitated at that, and studied Hermione's face carefully. "It's all right Harry. You can talk about it."

"The Terry thing. I'm still sorry about that Hermione," Harry grabbed the blanket and curled into Hermione's warm body.

"It's fine, Harry. Just really awkward seeing him at work these days. This girl of yours have a name?"

"Gabrielle. You've met her, actually. We reconnected when I went to France owl shopping."

Molly was more than happy to set another place at the table for the young Frenchwoman with Fleur. The conversation did spiral madly when Bill mentioned that Harry had just retired from the auror force, but Arthur calmed everyone down by pointing out that Harry had been facing Dark wizards for literally all of his life. He didn't need to continue if it wasn't what he wanted. Harry thanked him, but assured everyone that he still intended to pursue a career. Just not such a straightforward one.


End file.
